For a game that has been out for nearly a decade, the time came for it to finally receive an HD remastered edition for the current consoles. Albeit, it may only be on Play Station 4, but that doesn’t make the latest and polished version of Valkyria Chronicles any less astounding. In fact, if you have yet to try this game in any of its prior iterations, then we think this is the version to try.

Being a huge fan of this particular design of animation and cell-shaded graphics, Valkyria Chronicles, is one of the cornerstone titles for this style. And now that the graphics are locked in at 60 frames a second (yes we know PC gamers, shush) it is a beautiful site to behold. It is always great to see classic games run flawlessly. Everything about the HD remastered game on the console is quick and agile and runs quite smoothly. It is easy to see why the title was awarded “Best Artistic Graphics” by Gamespot back in 2008¹, combined with the beautiful frame rate, it couldn’t get much better.

The gameplay is very much tactics based and can take quite some time to complete battles. So get ready, because if you are going to play this title you are in for the long haul (like 30+ hours for the main story and another 50+ if you insist on being a completionist). If you are into tactics then this is a must. What is especially nice is the constant switching between a top down view of the battlefield to an over the shoulder 3rd-person mode. It makes the gameplay feel more dynamic and more involved than what people can typically expect from something labeled as a tactics title.

What is most important about Valkyria Chronicles (and makes it as entertaining ) in general is the story. Set in a fictional country (like Switzerland) during a large scale conflict in the middle of a global battle reminiscent of world war 2. The world is even called Europa. Set in the fictional country of Gallia which is stuck in the middle of a war between the Atlantic Federation and the East Europan Imperial Alliance, you play as militia officers Welkin Gunther Alicia Melchiott tasked with defending Gallia from the invading army.

Now, since it has the stylizing of anime it does include all the typical anime character tropes. Which, frankly is okay. In most JRPGs characters go through a range of challenging tasks that help shape the characters throughout the story. Since the centerpiece of Valkyria Chronicles‘ story revolves around war, our characters experience the same. The skits in between battles really help develop the characters in a way that makes us really want to be as involved as possible. The other best part? It doesn’t sugarcoat the war which I particularly appreciate as a lot of series tend to over romanticize it.

That being said, this version of the title is really just a port from the PC version that was released in November of 2014. The difference between the two? Not much. If you played through the PS3 version and you have managed to beat everything (kudos to you, that must have taken forever) then this version could be skipped. That being said, shouldn’t keep you away from playing the PS4 Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. If you already have not played this game yet, are into tactics games, and JRPGs (including all the tropes) than this game is certainly for you.

About Patrick Moore

is a co-founder of BentoByte. He is an audiophile with a predilection for every type of media. He enjoys playing music, going to shows, being active, good beer, going on adventures, and of course gaming and anime.